Category: Tales from the Crib

Baylor is in that phase where she’s ready to do some things on her own and it’s hard to let her. The pastor at our church has been calling all the kids at mass to the alter to sit and talk about the Gospel each week. So when he called for the kids, I shoved her out of the pew to run up. It turns out, they were instead taking all the kids over to the school to do a more kid focused hommily – something B has never done before. I raced to the back of church ready to escort her back to our seats after I explained where they were going. She looked at me with a confused look, shrugged her shoulders and said “I don’t mind!” and followed the herd. She returned happy, unscathed and I think more educated on the readings of the week.

I know I sound like a helicopter mom and in some ways I’m sure that I am, but it’s not a safe world. There are bad people and bad things and I couldn’t live with myself if I knew I let her walk into an unsafe situation – even unknowingly. The quote about having children means you understand what it’s like to have your heart walk around outside your body has never been truer…I’m taking deep breaths. I’m talking with her about what is appropriate and not appropriate when mommy is not there to help her judge. I’m giving her the skills to be able to go out into the world and be safe…I’m drinking lots of wine just thinking about it.

This past Friday we saved almost an entire pew in the chapel of Baylor’s preschool for family and friends so that we could all witness the adorableness that is the preschool Christmas program. Three songs and a group sing along have never been cuter.

The beautiful stained glass window in the chapel

I’m the mom with the super zoom lens…everyone makes fun until the pictures come out

This is the picture from the program two years ago. Eeek she’s getting big!

We hit Zoo Lights this year on the perfect night – there was no one there! I don’t know if there was something bigger going on around town or it was just too cold – either way, it was fantastic. The only down side was that because there were no lines, we broke the bank on light up necklaces, kettle corn, Polar Slide, etc. Sometimes the lines are a good thing.

We’re into themed hats

FootballFootballFootballFootball!!

I had on no less than 4 layers. I realized in the car that the temperature was 56 degrees. It’s amazing we lasted in DC as long as we did…

The Polar Slide had no lines so we shuffled on over to check it out. It’s made of some kind of plastic mesh – like the stuff Olympic skiers practice on in the summer. It’s super slick, but not cold. It’s pretty cool – but the initial drop off scared me just to watch. But Baylor decided it looked fun so she and Peter headed up to the start line. I assumed they would have her ride with him – nope. She got her own inner tube and went flying down the hill giving me a coronary. She proceeded to go 4 more times until we ran out of cash…I hope this isn’t the beginning of other death defying feats!

I tried to explain that if he would stop burning through clean jammies, I wouldn’t have to resort to putting him in his sister’s. His response was “I’M SORRY. I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THESE LOUD, STRIPPED, GIRL JAMMIES!”. There was an incident later in the morning that resulted in me falling into the door jam while trying to evade his leg grab…I don’t think it was unrelated.

Baylor brought me a catalog in October and pointed to a picture of an American Girl Doll wearing personalized Christmas jammies. She told me all about how we could all get jammies with our names on them and wear them at Christmas. The thought of Peter in personalized jammies was pretty amusing…but it did give me a good idea to get them for the kids and do our Christmas card picture in them. It would be great – two kids in cute pj’s and their adorable puppy. I would throw them all in the bed, get a picture of them being cute together and bam! I’d be done.

And it totally worked…the third time I tried. I mean like the the third time I dressed them both in their jammies, the dog was behaving and the lighting was right, it totally worked!

If Minted.com didn’t charge to put a picture on the back of the cards (when ordering 85 Christmas cards, that extra picture adds up!), I would have included one of these gems. So if you do reiceve a card from us this year, just know that out of the 40+ pictures I took, most of them looked like this. There were really only 2 pictures we could choose from for the card.

“Auggie. Auggie!! Auggie, put down the rock and look. Look over here!!!”

I don’t want to brag…but we ROCKED Trunk or Treat this year! Thanks to the D family for their refrigerator box, their awesome painting skills and creativity, we made two super cool haunted houses. Bonus? They are stored safely away for next year!

The princesses and a cheerleader

The black lights really put it over the top!Where’s the fire ma’am?

We also Fall Fesitivaled and had actual Halloween – I was all too happy to pack up the decorations on November first. But having a holiday hangover is the sign that you did a good job, right??

Auggie’s look of confusion is priceless.

Someone did not appreciate their butterfly costume

B and I thought we were sooo cleaver making a crying baby pumpkin for Augg